Westfall: More on our 51st state

Tom Westfall

Guest columnist

Posted:
06/14/2013 10:41:51 AM MDT

Several months ago in this very column, I proposed the creation of our 51st State. CoKaNe, as I called it, took portions of eastern Colorado, western Kansas and southwest Nebraska and formed the first new state created within the confines of the existing landmass since 1863 when West Virginia seceded from Virginia and became its own state during the Civil War.

As much as it pleases any writer to have his/her ideas taken seriously, I must confess that I wasn't expecting anyone to "drink the Kool-Aid" and actually consider the creation of a new state. Apparently the Weld County commissioners are more forward thinking than anyone could have anticipated and are proposing that Weld, Logan, Morgan, Washington, Yuma, Sedgwick, Phillips, Yuma and Kit Carson counties secede from Colorado and create "North Colorado." In my original plan, Weld County wasn't even included, though with the booming gas and oil development there, that may have been an oversight on my part.

I'm not sure why the Weld County commissioners didn't more fully embrace the notion of getting our fellow malcontents in Nebraska and Kansas to join our efforts, but their proposal posits a relatively small state with a modest (meager?) population and a tax base predicated almost solely upon agriculture and energy. Nothing wrong with either of those industries other than the reality that they are a bit cyclical and down years could create a very real financial hardship on our fledgling state.

I'm not sure that adding portions of Nebraska and Kansas would have changed that much, but the area up around Valentine would have been ideally suited for our burgeoning tourist industry. Valentine is a beautiful little town situated in the sandhills of Nebraska that boasts wetlands, canoeing and some of the prettiest scenery anywhere around. I'm not suggesting that Julesburg couldn't become an epicenter of tourist activity but it hasn't thus far.

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But let's not be naysayers... Oh sure, there are lots of rational reasons why "North Colorado" isn't a good venture, but let's look on the bright side: At least it will be mostly Republican. Those of us with the "R" behind our names have been feeling a little disenfranchised of late as Colorado has morphed from a "red state" to a "purple state" and now is considered by many political pundits to be a "blue state." Republicans in Colorado have lost much of their political clout and those of us in rural Colorado are going to feel the effects of this soon, particularly as it relates to our increased energy costs (thanks to Governor Hickenlooper for signing SB252... are you going to miss us when we're gone?)

One of the things I like about our new state is that neither Tom Tancredo nor Scott Gessler live here, which means at least we won't have them running for governor. If these men are the best hope of the Republican Party in Colorado, I'm glad that I'll be living in North Colorado where at least we have citizen legislators, Cory, Greg and Jerry (and because our state will be so small, everyone will know everyone, and we will all use each other's first name when talking about them.) It has been suggested that the number of guns per citizen contributes to us Republicans shooting ourselves in the foot now and then, but that's unwarranted calumny and furthermore is just plain mean.

I do have one suggestion for our embryotic state: let's make Sterling the capital. Now I'm not suggesting this because I live in Logan County, but rather because we have a state prison up here. Of course once we secede, the state of Colorado is going to close that prison and the 800 people who work there will probably leave along with the 2,500 or so incarcerated inmates which means that we will have a large, empty building which could be converted into a functional State Capitol... Oh yeah, talk about "repurposing!"

Perhaps instead of "drinking the Kool-Aid" someone's been messing with CoKaNe. After all, Weld County really isn't that far from Boulder!